I am planning to brew a Winter Warmer spiced beer.
I was thinking about starting with maybe a Scotch Strong Ale kit and then spicing that with Ginger, Cinnamon, Orange zest, cloves, cardomom nutmeg etc.
I was looking at the kit from http://www.windriverbrew.com/darkales.html
the price is right for 12 lbs of malt extract included in the kit. and Peat smoked malt as well.
What do you think?
I have never used a kit before but it seems like an economical way to do it.
I just brewed a Mocha Oatmeal stout with just 6 lbs of extract and with grains and hops and yeast it came to about $47 bucks. The price savings is tempting.

By the way does anyone have a recipe for an American Strong Ale? Like a
Stone Arrogant !@#$ clone? That might be a good one to spice up!

In the past when I used kits, I often tried adding things to make them more interesting.

To a stout I added a bottle of Ginger wine
To a different stout I added a few pots of freshly brewed coffee (3 pots but never changed the powder and never added more).

There were a variety of other experiments (similar to what you are doing now).

The only one that had any success was the coffee. In ALL other instances, the added flavour dissappeared after a couple of weeks. From this experience I would say it is a waste of time and effort doing anything extra to kits. Dry hopping is about the only thing I would suggest....

Obviously this is just my experience and others may have better methods than I did!

PieOPah wrote:
The only one that had any success was the coffee. In ALL other instances, the added flavour dissappeared after a couple of weeks. From this experience I would say it is a waste of time and effort doing anything extra to kits. Dry hopping is about the only thing I would suggest....

It makes a big difference on the spices you're adding, the style you're working with, and when you added the spices/flavoring. For example, a stout is a full flavored beer, so anything is going to need to be added in large amounts. For making spices ales, I've always started with a strong brown ale.

If you add flavors to the brew pot or the primary, keep in mind that CO2 bubbles generated during fermentation will tend to scrub out any added flavors. If you're adding a flavoring that doesn't need to be boiled, always add it to the secondary.